Central Connecticut Rail Study Hartford-Waterbury (Busway)

Hello All,
I remember reading a lot about how a busway in Hartford was going to severely hinder Amtrak and commuter expansion plans. Now I cannot find the thread. Can some one tell me what ended up happening, I saw something about the busway getting built. Was there a compromise of some sort or is a second track pretty much out of the question now?
Cheers,
Nick

Allow me to re-direct you to an existing thread in the New England Railfan forum:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... &start=165" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And to answer your question(s), yes it is being built (much to our dismay) and well.. yes and no it could hinder expansion plans. From what I've read in the above thread Amtrak has some kind of dibs(?) on the ROW in X years that the busway is occupying which means, essentially, that the busway will need to be ripped up to make room for the third track. And no there is already a second track along the stretch of the line where the busway will run alongside. It's a third track that will be needed to accomodate both NHHS, expanded Amtrak service, and future freight traffic growth near the Hartford area and will require removing the busway.

The busway would hinder passenger rail service only if Waterbury-New Britain-Hartford commuter rail service was initiated on the corridor. The area where the busway is being built alongside the Springfield Line once accommodated 4 tracks - 2 for what is now today's Springfield Line and 2 for what was part of the Waterbury-Hartford main, though I believe this trackage was operated as two parallel mains, vs a 4-track railroad.

Any restoration of WBY-NB-HFD commuter service today would require trains to detour south from New Britain to Berlin to reach the Springfield Line, since the direct shot to said line is becoming the busway (having been abandoned sometime in the late 80s). Even if this service got off the ground, the section from Berlin to where the busway line joins the Springfield Line was never wide enough to accommodate more than 2 tracks.

Unfortunately, the busway eliminated the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide WBY-NB-HFD commuter service. However, in 5-50 years, when someone realizes the busway was a mistake, the right of way is there to rip up the pavement and lay at least one, if not two tracks and provide such a commuter service. But at present or any time in the near future, I cannot see a need for 3 tracks in the busway corridor.

The HFD-WBY commuter rail study is actively ongoing, using the Berlin Branch instead: http://www.centralctrailstudy.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. It's a less convenient route for sure, but in the end little more than a flesh wound for that service's prospects. The additional time penalty isn't huge on a line lots of tangent track (save for the downtown Bristol hairpin) and wide stop spacing. It still handily beats I-84, and as long as that is true the demand's going to be big.

It was actually an ironclad requirement of the Busway funding legislation to fund a couple million for the CR study and get it going right away. That was the compromise Gov. Malloy had to offer to prevent a Senate filibuster mounted by the Bristol/Plainville legislators. You can see on the website they're going at a pretty brisk pace with the meetings. It'll be interesting to see in 1-1/2 to 2 years when they release the final scoping report what ridership figures this turns up, because everybody assumes Malloy funded it to bury it. But that Waterbury/Plymouth/Bristol/Plainville contingent in the Legislature are frothing determined to get this built (at this point it's hard to determine where genuine enthusiasm blurs into Busway spite and making Malloy eat it) and are booby-trapping themselves to force the issue. They may not be in the driver's seat at shaping CDOT's borked-up priorities, but they sure as hell can make a spectacle for themselves if the study ridership comes back slam-dunk for this and re-arm with a lifetime's worth of ammo for Busway critique.


They can definitely build this without need for a 3rd track yet. There's plenty of capacity there to handle the max-rollout NHHS with this service, given that the Springfield Line has such negligible utilization today. All of it has been studied. It's when you get past there...when NHHS is running the fullest schedule modeled in every CDOT study...and further increases are needed that future needs get murky. Because that has not been modeled. Neither have the moderate effects of: Amtrak Inland Regionals, Amtrak Montrealer restoration giving bump to Vermonter frequencies, mixed NHHS service patterns poking north of Springfield on the Knowledge Corridor. Each of those is no-build in CT or (in the case of north-of-SPR commuter service) no-build at all and can appear relatively quickly on the corridor if Massachusetts, Vermont, and/or Quebec go for it with their state-sponsored funding. So add those into the unmodeled traffic mix. It really is not known beyond 10 years what kind of traffic we're going to be dealing with. All bets are off on the future track capacity needs if NHHS significantly overperforms and the auxiliary services start incrementally taking their small slices of the pie.


Unfortunately I haven't read that CDOT traffic engineer's thread on Somethingawful.com ever since the site started requiring a registration to view, so I don't know what he's said about it lately (see the other thread for the money quotes of his blunter observations). Definitely as of late last year CDOT still had NO final lease agreement with Amtrak for the Busway's use of the ROW. Which means, not only is CDOT actively constructing the Busway while not knowing what the status of its occupancy is should Amtrak need a 3rd track...but Amtrak can gouge them on annual rent. Which is a truly scary proposition as the capital cost spirals up and this detail is yet unresolved. Amtrak is sitting pretty in all this. They're getting a free grade separation in West Hartford, can jack the state up for an overinflated rent, and possibly evict them when they need more tracks while more or less stealing the bridge and culvert infrastructure the state built on their ROW. It cannot be understated how insane and corrupt this project is on every level. They dove head-first into this without basic-most protection of their right of way. This is so ripe for abuse of course Amtrak is going to go along. It's all profit with no downside for them if they can evict when the 3rd track is needed.

I say the ConnDOT/ road construction back door deals are still extant, in spite of what happened to Doc. Rowland and Tomasso. The inclination to build more roads is still deeply ingrained at DOT.

I ought to call CT Rep. Betty Boukus. I am no longer a CT resident, but I knew her growing up. Better yet would be to arrange a meeting with a colleague who covers political affairs for the BLET in CT and MA. He could point things in a pro rail direction.

The Busway is Rowland's baby. Most of those design contracts went to his pet firms...no-bid, rampant overcharging, no limit on design mofifications. The project chewed up obscene amounts of money even before Malloy drank the Kool-Aid and advanced it to build because virtually every private contractor touching it was bilking the system. It's too bad Somethingawful.com doesn't allow free fews of its forums, because the CDOT engineer who answers the (great read!) "Ask a Traffic Engineer. . ." thread worked on the busway and vented in gruesome detail about how out-of-control it was. Search the other busway threads...there's copy/pastes of his posts.

Then of course post-construction you've still got all the shadiness of the land deals that weren't settled in advance like they should've been. Resulting in that egregious overpay for a slice of the Aetna parking lot. With the great big Amtrak rent swindle still yet to drop because they're saving the best for last.


The entire Bristol/Plymouth/Plainville/western New Britain (because the busway does zilch for anyone slogging it from west of downtown) legislative contingent--Boukos included--have been the biggest and loudest busway opponents of all. The Nicastro brothers of Bristol (Legislature + Chamber of Commerce) are the ringleaders of that faction. Their protests haven't abated one bit since they 'lost' and all manner of silencing efforts were put on them by the supporters. They're the ones looking to boobytrap the Central CT Rail Study into a build. You'd be preaching to the choir a bit writing to them, but they'll probably write you back at length and 'colorfully'.

Initial ridership estimates are now 13,000 per day, down from 16,000 two years ago. Even those numbers sound overly optimistic:
http://articles.courant.com/2014-02-20/ ... t-hartford" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As for staying on budget they're forgetting about how much it'll cost to re-align it when/if I-84 goes underground

Cosmo wrote:

NH2060 wrote: Have you seen the price tag for this thing? $60M per MILE. For a freaking road. And that's how it currently stands. As a current CT resident I'm embarrassed sometimes by the decisions our state's gov't makes when it comes to transportation. The fact that this project got the green light is disturbing to say the least. And it will only cost far more as construction progresses. An extension of the Waterbury Branch through New Britain to Hartford would have cost less and covered more miles and connected more people than the buses ever will. They have their place in CT's transit network and that's on city streets and maybe on some HOV lanes, but not on what should be a commuter rail.

I AGREE! But that was not the point I was making to FLR. Yes, the busway is a boondoggle, but to simply kibitz it from Florida is one thing, to make a blanket statement that puts all the CT lawmakers in the same basket weather they voted for it or not belies ignorance.

I might be in FLORIDA, but I still have business in CT. I think the busiest is stupid, because it could be a commuter rail from Waterbury to Hartford and east to Willimantic. Unfortunately, Malloy had the busiest but it will fail. I hope someone will look at commuter rail.

Cosmo wrote:HUH???!?!?!?!????

I'm sure he meant to say "busway"

FLRailFan1 wrote: I might be in FLORIDA, but I still have business in CT. I think the busiest is stupid, because it could be a commuter rail from Waterbury to Hartford and east to Willimantic. Unfortunately, Malloy had the busiest but it will fail. I hope someone will look at commuter rail.

Even to the naked eye commuter rail would have been a better choice. Quite a few with at least some political clout strongly believed that too (maybe not to Willimantic as that is years and years away from serious consideration). Had CT been footing the entire bill- instead of just about 1/3 of it- no doubt many more would have called for the Gov. to pull the plug on this.

True commuter rail would be a better choice. I84 is crowded and we need to look into ways to get people from point A to point B. With the rails back on the Midland you could have commuter from Willimantic to Waterbury. Also CSO, NECR, and P&W could use it, too. Who knows but maybe Valley Railroad could run a steam train to the notch

Yes, and with replica Osgood Bradley coaches built by the new rail car manufacturer in their old plant in Worcester!
If we get on it fast enough, we could even have the Easter Bunny drive it!

The Gov. himself said the only real reason this actually moved forward was because the Feds were footing so much of the bill. That was his strongest argument for it. Many have said too that if CTDOT backed out that there would never be any more federal transportation money for the state of CT.

It still should have been a railroad... I'm still hoping it will.

Service starts March 28th:
http://www.ctfastrak.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now all that's needed is for the Waterbury-Hartford commuter rail ("Waterbury Line", "Highland Line", etc.) to become a reality and have both bus and rail go head to head.

NH2060 wrote:Service starts March 28th:
http://www.ctfastrak.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now all that's needed is for the Waterbury-Hartford commuter rail ("Waterbury Line", "Highland Line", etc.) to become a reality and have both bus and rail go head to head.

The train always wins.


Honestly, they're gonna need both before the I-84 Viaduct deconstruction armageddon starts. You might as well nail a "closed for business" sign on Farmington, Avon, Bristol, Plainville, Southington, Cheshire, Plymouth, Waterbury, and even the westernmost parts of New Britain traced out by Route 372 and Corbin Ave. CT Transit don't use the Busway on those routes, and the fatal flaw in CDOT's cunning plan to maybe possibly (but not really) tap anything originating west of downtown as a busway thru route is that they have to use 84 and 72 to even get onto the grade separation. And 72/9 is going to be its own horror show as everyone who lives west scrambles to bail off 84. It really is going to end up being a highway project prerequisite to get the Highland CR'd beforehand. I just don't see any way around that with what unimaginable pain that commute situation is going to be. You almost have to just to backstop the economies of all those cities and towns that are basically going to be consigned to a lost decade accessibility-wise (and some of them are pretty damn inaccessible...and suffering for it...as-is).